The New York Times Magazine, Sunday, August 22, 1999

States Criticized on Lax Lead Tests for Poor Youths
August 21, 1999
States Criticized on Lax Lead Tests for
Poor Youths
By ROBERT PEAR
ASHINGTON -- Federal investigators say most states are flouting a
1989 law requiring that young children on Medicaid be tested for lead
poisoning. As a result, they say, hundreds of thousands of children
exposed to dangerously high levels of lead are neither tested nor treated.
The General Accounting Office, an investigative arm of Congress, found that
"few Medicaid children are screened for blood-lead levels," even though the
problem of lead poisoning is concentrated among low-income children on
Medicaid. Medicaid recipients are three times as likely as other children to have
high amounts of lead in the blood.
Separately, a Federal advisory panel said this week that "current lead screening
rates among children covered by Medicaid are very poor, despite Federal
requirements."
Cost is not the main reason for the failure to test children, health officials say.
The laboratory test usually costs less than $10.
Officials cite more complex reasons for the low rates of testing. Many doctors do
not see lead exposure as a problem for their patients and therefore do not believe
tests are necessary, or they are unaware of the Federal requirements. In addition,
many poor children do not go to the doctor until they are sick, and most children
with high levels of lead in the blood display no obvious symptoms at first.
Under Federal law, states are responsible for the screening of children on
http://www.nytimes.com/library/national/082299lead-poison.html (1 of 4) [8/22/1999 10:22:43 PM]
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